PA to Unilaterally Set Borders in September

PA officials are planning to unilaterally set their own borders after their statehood bid at the UN in September.

By Gabe Kahn.

First Publish: 7/25/2011, 5:05 PM

PA Security Forces

Flash 90

Even as the Palestinian Authority warns Israel not to revoke the Oslo Accords it is planning to unilaterally set its own borders in September, Gulf News reports.

The borders, according to a senior PA official, will be drawn by the PA and Arab states following the 'completion' of its statehood bid at the United Nations.

Bassam Al Salehi, the Secretary General of the Palestinian People's Party, told reporters the leadership has lost faith in peace talks which is why they are approaching the matter through the UN.

"States which recognise each other, draw and fix their borders," Salehi said.

"So far we have secured the approval of about 120 states from around the world to endorse an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borderline," he added.

"We will present Israel as an occupation force at the UN. We cannot attach the fate of an independent Palestinian state to the will of the Israelis," he said.

But the PA initiative faces a likely US security council veto at the UN, which would render any support it receives in the General Assembly moot.

Sources inside the PA, however, say senior PA security personnel have expressed concern that its 41,000 strong paramilitary force - some 11,000 stronger than the Oslo Accords allow - is not up to the task of confronting the IDF in Judea and Samaria should Israel, as seems inevitable, dispute any unilateral PA claims.

Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said previously the PA bid at the world body would render the Oslo Accords - which mandate bilateral talks - 'null and void' and unilateral moves by the PA would be met with a 'diplomatic eye for an eye.'